💃🏻The Tapa Weekend: May 19
A flowers market, brunch with Fatboy Slim and a flamenco festival.
By @IanMount and @AdrianBono | May 19, 2023 | Madrid | Issue #8
🎉 Welcome to a new issue of The Tapa: Weekend Edition! An English-language newsletter about what to do this weekend in Spain (plus memes because why the hell not).
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Here are 5 Things to Do in Madrid This Weekend
Not to sound like Jerry Seinfeld*, but what’s the deal with this cold weather all of a sudden? We thought winter was gone, but waking up to 7ºC is not our idea of a fun spring. Let’s not let that stop us, though. Because baby, it's semi-cold outside but there is still plenty of options for having a good time these next few days. From an EDM brunch to a (yet another) ruta, here’s our list of recommendations for the weekend. Enjoy.
* For you kids reading, Jerry Seinfeld is a comedian who had the number one show in the world, like, eons ago. It would probably be canceled on Twitter today, though.
1. Flamenco Madrid Festival 2023
Did you know that Flamenco is considered an Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO? Since you didn’t (or even if you did—or are pretending you did), maybe it’s time you paid a visit to the incredible Flamenco Madrid festival, back for its seventh edition. Get ready to be captivated by the electrifying rhythms and mesmerizing dance performances that have made Flamenco a symbol of the local identity. The festival is directed by renowned dancer, choreographer and producer Ángel Rojas and features all the dancing, singing, guitar sessions and documentaries your little heart could desire. There are 12 different stages around Madrid and the artists participating this year include Jesús Carmona, Rafaela Carrasco, Marco Flores, La Lupi and the winners of the Spanish Dance and Flamenco Dance Competition.
Oh, and a word of advice. Do not miss the legendary Sara Baras, who will be playing at the Teatro EDP Gran Vía for the next two weeks. Tickets can be purchased here.
Flamenco Madrid Festival. May 14-27. Multiple locations around Madrid. Tickets from €7. Check their official website for information about schedules and tickets this weekend.
2. From Flamenco to EDM: Brunch Electronik! #4
Don’t worry if you missed the previous three editions of the Brunch Electronik. This Sunday, you can head over to IFEMA for edition #4, which features none other than British DJ and producer Fatboy Slim, a “pioneer of the big beat genre, which is the result of a combination of hip hop, breakbeat, rock and rhythm and blues” (in case you kids don’t know who he is). Other artists participating this Sunday include MYD, Sarah Story, Marta Van Dam and Fernanda Arrau, and many other well-known names in the international electronic circuit. Is there actual brunch involved? Honestly we don’t know. But the music is definitely worth it. You won’t be alone: last year over 250,000 people attended the outdoor festival in total.
Brunch! Electronik #4. IFEMA. Recinto Ferial Juan Carlos I, Parque Juan Carlos I, s/n, 28042 Madrid. Sunday, May 21, 4 p.m. Tickets from €29,61. Check their website for options.
3. Mercado de las Flores de Primavera
Should we be promoting an event that is organized by Vogue, a publication that is very clearly our competitor? They don’t even know we exist (yet), so why not.
This Saturday, and just like every spring lately, Vogue is organizing the Mercado de las Flores de Primavera (Spring Flower Market) in upscale Salamanca, in which over 25 flower stands from some of the city’s best flower shops—such as Elena Suárez, Botanyco, Blooms, El Florista, Maua Studio Floral, Blooms or Flores en el Columpio— take over traditional Calle Jorge Juan and turn it into a celebration of colors and aromas.
Not only that, but some of the nearby clothing stores offer discounts (up to 25%!) so you can buy a bouquet and also some pants. There will also be wine tastings, celebrity sightings, workshops, free meriendas and a lot, lot more! Check Vogue Spain’s website for more information. Just make sure that you dress nicely if you go. This is Salamanca, not Malasaña. You don’t want celebrity socialite Carmen Lomana to give you the Miranda Priestly stare when you show up wearing crocs.
Mercado de las Flores de Primavera. Calle Jorge Juan (between Serrano and Velázquez), Salamanca, Madrid. Saturday, May 20. Noon-8 p.m. Free admission.
4. Surrender Yourself to the Ruta de la Arepa
Resistance is futile. Sure, we’re all being careful with what we eat because #hotgirlsummer or whatever. But this new ruta—the ruta de la arepa—has all of us drooling. Arepas, a staple dish from Venezuela and Colombia, are a sort of stuffed cornmeal cake that’s crispy on the outside and mushy on the inside. You can stuff it with beans, beef, chicken, cheese…the combinations are endless (and delicious), and from May 18-28, this new ruta is hitting Madrid with dozens of restaurants and bars (mostly in the downtown area) offering their own version of the popular dish. As the ruta’s official website says, “all styles and interpretations” are permitted, including “street, gourmet, fusion…and as many other creations as the imagination allows”.
Get one. Get one now.
Screw #hotgirlsummer.
Ruta de la Arepa. May 18-28. Multiple locations. Check their official website for a list of restaurants, bars and options.
5. The Festival Street Market, in Salesas
The Festival Street Market in the Salesas neighborhood (north of the Chueca subway station) usually takes place on the first Saturday of every month. This month, however, it’s happening tomorrow. If you haven’t checked it out, it’s definitely worth a visit. The self-described “crazy, cosmopolitan and unique” market is a place where you can buy modern art, listen to cool music, try on some hipster hand-made clothes and sample chocolate from Papua New Guinea (at least that’s what we did there once). Artisans, fashion designers, bartenders and poets are all mixed together here. And best part is, once you’ve made your purchase (trust us, you will), you can head over for brunch to one of the many cool cafés and restaurants in the area. You can check their official website for more information on what to expect.
The Festival Street Market. Near the Alonso Martínez metro station. Saturday, May 20. Free admission.
👨🏻💻 Other Headlines of the Week
These are some of the most ridiculous or viral stories in Spain this week that didn’t make our Thursday edition but we felt deserved a (dis)honorable mention today.
🛥 Jeff Bezos bought 2 big boats but he’s not compensating for anything
Amazon founder/Lex Luthor imitator Jeff Bezos jetted into Mallorca on Monday to play with his new toy—a $500m, 127m-long yacht named Koru! Which is the Maori word for “new beginnings” or something. It’s the “world’s tallest sailing yacht”—so big, in fact, that a historic bridge almost had to be dismantled to get it out of the shipyard. His other boat, the Abeona, came into town as well (we hope she wasn’t jealous). At “only” 75m, the villainously ugly Abeona (she looks like a tanker; if you don’t believe us—look here) is meant to be a “support boat” for Koru.
It’s good to be the king.
Bezos and girlfriend Lorena Sánchez pranced their inflated bodies about on the Koru, people filmed them and their boat, and Twitter speculated about what Jeff was using to get so jacked. So we have that.
🗳 Debating 101, or, please tell us it’s over
The one and only debate between the candidates for the presidency of the Madrid Autonomous Community on Tuesday was about as illuminating as a candle in the 1600s. At best.
The PP’s Isabel Díaz Ayuso promised to put a plant on every balcony in Madrid. Seriously.
Vox’s Rocío Monasterio “apologized” for underestimating how horrible it was to care for unaccompanied immigrant minors (aka MENAs). They each cost €6,400 a month, not the €4,700 a month she’s previously estimated (a figure Vox was criticized in the past for, as it’s grossly misleading). Also seriously.
Alejandra Jacinto, the Podemos candidate, tried to hand Ayuso a copy of Morirán de forma indigna (They will die in an undignified way), the critical book Alberto Reyero, a former minister of social policy in Ayuso’s government, wrote about the how 7,000 elderly who died in residencies during the pandemic under Ayuso’s watch. A visibly irritated/nervous Ayuso said “Please don’t come close to me.”
Rating? Grim theater.
🏠 You know you NEVER mention Irene’s chalet
A women approached Minister of Equality Irene Montero in Valencia and cast doubt on how the young minister (Age: 35) was able to afford a chalet in the Madrid suburbs when she at her age could never hope to—and daaaaamn did Irene flip out.
The woman said, “My husband, working since age 14…How are you able to have a chalet?” before Montero cut her off and, visibly irritated, replied. “You know why, señora? Because my father died from cancer at 60 and left me an inheritance, because I’m an only child. And I have a partner along with whom I can buy, with my money, the house I want.” And then turned and stomped away.
Which may all be true but, when you’re a minister with the hard-left Podemos and one of your central tenets is helping the less-fortunate with housing, and your partner is former Podemos boss Pablo Iglesias, shouting down that lady is probably not the best way to handle the situation.
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We’ll be back next week with more.